Pebble Beach
Development Plan Debated

By IRWIN SPEIZERSpecial to The Times

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - The Pebble Beach Co., run by
high-profile investors Clint Eastwood and Peter Ueberroth,
is seeking permission for one of the most ambitious Monterey
Peninsula development projects in decades: a plan to add an
18- hole golf course, 160 hotel suites and 60 employee
housing units.

But though the project envisions setting aside nearly 500
acres of forest preserve, it also would use scarce Monterey
Peninsula water while eliminating more than 17,000 trees on
about 100 acres. Its potential impact on the environment and
existing residential neighborhoods has raised a chorus of
objections.

Officials from the company, which owns high-end hotels
and golf courses, say the project offers a delicate balance
between profit and preservation, and that it represents a
bid by Eastwood to create a lasting legacy of corporate
environmental stewardship of the Monterey Peninsula's Del
Monte Forest.

"He understands this is Oscar material if it is done
right," said Alan Williams, president of the Carmel
Development Co., which is managing the project.

But critics say the project is nothing more than a cheap
horror flick complete with chain saws. "If the Pebble Beach
Co. is a steward, why aren't they fighting to protect the
Monterey pines?" asked David Dillworth, executive director
of Helping Our Peninsula's Environment. "They probably
consider bulldozers and chain saws conservation
equipment."

The Monterey County Subdivision Committee, which was to
hold the first county hearing on the project earlier this
month, decided to reschedule for Thursday because it needed
more time to review 90 letters from the public and local
agencies offering comments and raising concerns.

A central point of contention is the new golf course. The
company already operates four courses in the area. but says
it needs another to accommodate brisk demand. At its
signature Pebble Beach Golf Links, where a single round
costs $395, players often must book months in advance to
reserve a tee time.

By adding another course and more hotel rooms, the
company could accommodate more players and also generate
more cash to help pay the cost of managing and preserving
the remaining Del Monte Forest tracts under its control. But
residents question the need for another golf course in the
area.

"I realize golf courses generate an awful lot of money,"
said Pebble Beach resident Carl Nielsen. "The question is,
should the entire area be golf courses or should it have
some open space like presently exists?" Nielsen is
co-chairman of Concerned Residents of Pebble Beach and
Monterey County, which wants to scale back the project.

And then there is the question of the Monterey pine, the
primary tree in Del Monte Forest. Dillworth's group points
out that the tree is a variety of pine only rarely found
naturally, and that the Monterey Peninsula has the largest
natural forest of those trees in the world. Rather than
chopping down 17,000, the company should strive to protect
those that remain, he said.

If the company needs another golf course, it simply
should buy one of the existing courses in the area instead
of clearing more of the forest, Dillworth said. Dropping the
new golf course would answer "90% or 95% of our concerns,"
he said.

But the company says the golf course is the one element
that it cannot do without. Although 17,000 trees would be
sacrificed, it says millions would be saved.

"It's part of the give and take," Williams said. "Instead
of developing housing on 300 some odd lots, which would
remove more trees than the golf course, we are compromising
a very small percentage of forest to create an economic
engine that will support the whole thing. There are millions
of trees versus 17,000. That is a very, very small
percentage of the overall trees that the company is
preserving and will continue to maintain."

The current debate over new development in the Pebble
Beach resort area is the latest in a saga that stretches
back more than a dozen years, beginning with the previous
Japanese owners of the company, who proposed adding not only
a new golf course but also more than 300 residential lots.
When that project came up for county review, there were more
than 350 letters of protest and concern.

Eastwood's investor group bought out the previous owners
in 1999 for a reported $820 million and set about finding a
way of getting the new golf course built along with some
additional hotel rooms. The new owners also sought to
respond to critics by eliminating nearly all the new
residential lots and setting aside large chunks of Del Monte
Forest in conservation easements.

The company sponsored ,a ballot question that set out the
outline of the project and was approved by 70% of voters in
2000. Two years ago, the company launched its bid to win
approval from with Monterey County.

The Pebble Beach Co.'s proposal faces several hurdles -
not the least of which is the California Coastal Commission,
which must rule on the land-use changes contemplated by
Measure A. The company hopes to push the project through to
approval by the end of the year and start construction next
spring.

Opponents are working to derail the project before either
the county or the Coastal Commission. But they are well
aware that fighting Eastwood is never easy in Monterey
County.

"He has a general public image of positive activity in
the area," Nielsen said. "I am impressed with his generosity
toward the community. But I still don't like what he is
proposing to do in Pebble Beach."